Albin Kurti: New Ruling Coalition Should Include Serbs, but Not Serb List

Aljbin Kurti voting (AP)

Albin Kurti, leader of the Self-Determination party, which won most of the votes in the Oct. 6 early parliamentary elections in Kosovo, on Oct. 8 said that a new ruling coalition would include Serb parties, but the Serb List, explaining that the Serb List was not a party, but a state.

"According to the Kosovo Constitution, the cabinet should feature at least one minister from the Serb community, but it does not stipulate that a minister has to be from the Serb List. We will focus on our priorities in relation to the minorities as such, as communities, and not as parties," Kurti told TV N1.

He also said that during his first week in office, he would start talks with the Kosovo Serbs.

Speaking about the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Kurti said that immediately upon  formation of a new cabinet, talks should start with Brussels, that is, with the new commissioner for foreign affairs and security policy.

"So we need a dialogue on the dialogue. We need to well prepare the dialogue as we cannot afford another failure in the dialogue as it will cost too much. Also, we will review 33 agreements we reached in the period from 2011 to 2017 to see what has been fulfilled and what has not been fulfilled and also the effects on the life of the people in Kosovo and we will start the dialogue with Serbia which has to be based on solid principles,” Kurti said.

He further said that 100 percent tariffs on the goods coming from Serbia was not his party’s policy, which advocated full reciprocity in all fields, noting that reciprocity was a just principle of good neighborly ties.

Kurti told TV N1 that talks on the formation of a new cabinet with the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo would start on Oct. 8.

He added that the procedure for the election of a new cabinet would be long as final election results could not be proclaimed before all ballots were counted, including those sent by post.

Since the declaration of independence in 2008, this was the first election in which the largest number of votes were collected by the opposition parties, the Self-Determination and the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, while the former ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo will be joining the opposition ranks.

Of the Serb community candidates, the Serb List won all ten guaranteed seats in the Kosovo assembly.